Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
indispensable - but not pefect!, 29 Jan 2007
The first thing to say about this DVD is that everyone who is seriously interested in violin playing should have it. Heifetz was incomparable, and here there is a marvellous series of live performances, of some of the 'itsy-bitsy' encore pieces he offered throughout his career, the Chanconne from the second Bach Partita and the Bruch Scottish Fantasy. For one like myself who never saw Heifetz in the flesh, this is absolutely compelling viewing. There are also some quite pleasant little pieces of informal 'home video'-style footage - Heifetz on the beach, Heifetz playing table tennis, Heifetz with his electrically powered Renault Dauphine, of which he was very proud, and so on. But there are lots of things wrong with the DVD as well. Liner notes are minimal. There is no menu, so you cannot select. At several points there is very soft pre-echo. The commentary is pretty banal. And the peformance of the Scottish Fantasy, a real Heifetz warhorse and a piece he played better than anyone, is without conductor - the orchestra is the French National Radio Orchestra - and while in a way this is facscinating, because Heifetz has to keep the band together as well as playing a very hairy solo part, there are moments of uneasy ensemble (Heiefetz even frowns momentarily at one point near the end when he is a split second ahead of his colleagues). I don't want to make too much of that because we are privileged to see Heifetz in this piece and I certainly would not be without it ; I just wish there had been a competent conductor so that it could have been a little tighter. Still, that must have been the way Heifetz wanted it. But the other things - the notes, the lack of menu, the pre-echo - are disappointing. But what do you do? This was the most astonishing of all 20th-century violinists, here he is demostrating why he was so revered (and also his famously cool platform manner - very throwaway, with just a little comment to his pianist at the end of each piece and then a nod to the audience, as if he is fairly bored with the whole process - he actually yawns between two movements of the Bruch). It's fascinating, really, because the coolness is not at all in his playing. So, despite the weaknesses, none of which, in the end, is crucial, this remains a fantastic DVD, and though it's flawed, it has to get 5 stars.
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Master of Violin, 25 Oct 2005
Unparalleled violin playing for many decades, simply unrepeatable and mesmerizing. Strongly recommended.
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